Avignon – A Traveling Fool

November 21, 2022

Thoughts While on the Avalon Waterways Grand France River Cruise: Knowledge of the history of a place makes being there more interesting

I love history anyway, so I can easily get excited over seeing someplace like Hadrian’s Wall or Egyptian pyramids and temples or battlefields like Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, Yorktown, Culloden, the D-Day landing beaches, etc. Smaller historical events are also intriguing to me.

Whether you are fascinated by history or not, knowing just a little bit about a place can make it much more interesting, such as what is the significance of an old cemetery? Who is buried there?

In St Augustine, Florida, I was fascinated by the fort. It had been built by the Spanish prior to the English settlements at either Jamestown or Roanoke, Virginia or Plymouth, Massachusetts.

In Israel, Masada would have just been several piles of rocks up on a high, hot plateau without knowledge of its history. For those who hadn’t read up on it before the trip, there was a short film down at the base that everyone watched before taking the cable car up to see it.

At Thermopylae in Greece, without knowledge of what had taken place there a couple thousand years ago, just looking at a monument to Leonides and the 300 Spartans who fought and died there wouldn’t have been all that fascinating. Since I knew the story, I could use my imagination. And a good imagination was necessary. The topography has changed quite a bit since 480 BC.

On this trip, my knowledge of Joan of Arc came in handy while in Rouen. I knew that the museum dedicated to her was in the very building where her trial had taken place. I also knew about all of the other locations associated with her.

In Avignon, I was aware of the history of the town, the Pont de Avignon, and the Palais des Papes. Despite it being a very hot day, my back hurting, and lots of stairs to climb, I was very interested in seeing it all.

Sometimes when visiting a place where you already know the history, you can find that seeing the place itself can make your understanding of it much clearer. It was one thing to read about traboules (the secret passages that had been used by the French Resistance to escape detection), but quite another to actually walk through a few of them. They had been built in the old, Renaissance portion of Lyon back when that part of the city was new. People who lived there knew about them. But people who didn’t live there were at a loss. To this day, only a handful of them are open to the public.

Although most people are well aware of who Napoleon was and his role in history, I always find it to be fun to see personal objects used by such iconic public figures. In Napoleon’s case, it was his hat on display in the library of Malmaison – the home he shared with Josephine. It made him seem more human. Like when I saw one of Queen Victoria’s gowns and Admiral Horatio Nelson’s uniform.

October 31, 2021

Grand France River Cruise – Avignon

After lunch on the same day as Pont du Gard, we visited Avignon (those of us who hadn’t visited in the morning). The group was getting larger. This time there were five. Chris and Andy, who had been with me in Arles, and Pat and Fred, whose cabin was directly across the corridor from mine. Most of the rest of the group was on the optional tour to Chateauneuf-du-pape, which is a truly delicious collection of wines created not far from Avignon.

One of Avignon’s main claims to fame is that it, not Rome, was the seat of the Papacy from 1309 to 1377. The city walls and the Palace of the Popes were created during this time.

Another one of Avignon’s famous sites is the Pont d’Avignon – actually the Pont Saint-Bénézet. This is the bridge in the song “Sur le Pont d’Avignon”, the chorus of which goes: “Sur le Pont d’Avignon; L’on y danse, l’on y danse; Sur le Pont d’Avignon; L’on y danse tous en rond.” I had barely managed to get a quick pic of what was left of this bridge as we returned from Pont du Gard in the morning and rounded a bend in the road. It helped that I was in the front seat right behind the driver.

A stone bridge replaced the original wooden bridge in 1234. It once had 22 arches and spanned the entire river across the island in the middle. Since the bridge tended to collapse each time the Rhone experienced a serious flood, it was abandoned in the mid-17^th century. Four arches and the gatehouse at the Avignon end remain. There is also a 12^th century chapel on the second pier, dedicated to Saint Nicholas.

I snapped another ‘hurried while passing’ shot of the city walls as we returned to the ship. After lunch, to get from where the ship was docked into the walled city of Avignon, we crossed a road next to the quay, and then walked to a pedestrian tunnel to go under the main road around the walls. When we reached the walls, we headed for the gate to one of the main streets.

Avignon had a lot more people in it than in Arles. The sidewalks were narrow, so it was necessary to step out into the street from time to time and hopefully not get clobbered by a motor vehicle. The streets weren’t all that wide either. Fortunately the motor traffic was not terribly heavy, especially when we got into some of the side streets.

The 14^th century Church of Saint Agricol was one of the first sights we came to after a walk around some of the streets and squares. It was the second oldest church in Avignon after the cathedral. Directly across the street from the Palais des Papes was the Hôtel des Monnaies. Built in 1610, this was the papal mint and eventually became a music school.

Next door to the Palais des Papes was the cathedral Notre Dame des Doms. It predates the Palais by two centuries, having been built in the 12^th century. It is also pretty much dwarfed by the palace.

Once we got into the palace, I was mighty glad that we had a local guide. Even with a diagram of the place, I think I would have gotten lost. It was massive. I remember there were audience rooms and private chambers and chapels, but I can’t tell which is what from trying to compare the photos to the floor plan. I know that we entered through the new palace, crossed a courtyard and then entered the old palace. At some point we moved from the old palace to the new and came back out at the new palace. This was after climbing loads of stairs up and down and tromping through mammoth spaces.

My back had bothered me in Arles and earlier in the day at Pont du Gard. But it was absolutely killing me in Avignon. The short version of the story is: 1) cancer; 2) surgery; 3) cancer gone; 4) pain not quite yet. It had been just three months since the surgery, so fortunately I had a collapsible cane with me. But I needed to sit down a lot. On top of that, it was very hot and we needed to wear masks both inside and out. I have to say, bless Chris, Andy, Pat and Fred as all four of them kept looking out for me and made sure I wasn’t falling behind.

After we left the Palais des Papes, we headed for the lovely, much, much smaller, Church of Saint-Pierre with its beautifully carved doors. Like Saint Agricol and the Palais, it was 14^th century. Not far from there was the Synagogue.

We headed back to the main market square and returned to the ship the way we came. Once I refreshed and cooled down, I headed for Happy Hour to join Roberta and Jeff for a cooling drink (a margarita on the rocks) and to hear how their day went. After the Port Talk (when we got the rundown of the schedule for the next day) we joined the rest of our group for dinner.

Next – Bollene & Viviers

October 17, 2021October 17, 2021

Grand France River Cruise – A Castle Along the Rhone Between Arles & Avignon and Pont du Gard

Here and there along the river we would pass a castle. Makes sense to me. If I had the kind of money to build a castle, I would likely want to put it overlooking a river. We saw several castles along the Rhone (and the Saone and the Seine) on the full cruise. Sometimes I had my camera or phone at the ready and sometimes not.

A while after setting sail from Arles for Avignon, we spotted a castle on the port side of the ship. I managed to get a decent photo which I have included here. My phone said it was Beaucaire. But when I looked it up, the photos of the castle on the internet didn’t look like my photo. Then, I found there was another castle across the Rhone from Beaucaire called Tarascon. I looked it up. It matched.

The town of Tarascon has the tradition that Martha of Bethany (sister of Lazarus and Mary) arrived in Tarascon in 49 AD. Apparently there was a problem with a Tarasque (which is a mythological hybrid of a dragon in Provence). Martha tamed the beast. After her death, a church was built in her honor on the site of the house in which she had lived (near both the river and the castle). Her relics are contained there in the 3^rd century crypt.

The castle was built in 1400 and is still in pretty good shape. Although the bridges of the town were destroyed during World War II, the castle wasn’t. Beaucaire across the river was destroyed during the Revolution. It had been a royal castle. Tarascon had been owned by the rulers of Anjou and belonged to the town by the time of the Revolution, so it was spared.

We docked at Avignon during the night. The morning excursion that I had booked was a visit to the Pont du Gard. The highest and one of the best preserved aqueducts built by the Romans, it was built during the 1^st century AD in order to provide water to the town of Nimes.

Maintenance of the aqueduct was being neglected by the 4^th century. But the Pont du Gard survived because it was also being used as a toll bridge. By the 17^th century, the entire structure was having issues. So, in the early 18^th century, it was renovated and reinforced. A bridge was built to the side of the structure, to keep the main aqueduct safe from the wear and tear of the toll bridge.

The Pont du Gard has been a tourist destination for several centuries. That too was having its toll on the structure. In 1985 it became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Once again, there were just three of us on this excursion. This time my companions were another couple, Dennis & “D”. Dennis was recovering from an ankle replacement back in April. He did fine on the way to the museum, in the museum, and when we went out to the Pont du Gard and onto the bridge. It was when we went to the other side of the structure that he decided to just wait until we came back. The ground was much more uneven on that side. I hung in there until we came to some steep stairs down to a beach. Then I waited at the top of the stairs (sitting on a low wall) for our guide, Aurie, and D to return. It was great to just sit and soak in the scenery.

In the museum, a display was included regarding how the arches were built using wooden scaffolding. There were some examples of tools that were used and how the stone was quarried.

When we were on the bridge, we could see the narrow gap between the bridge and the aqueduct. We could also clearly see the graffiti from many centuries of stone masons and tourists carved into the original walls. The holes where the wooden scaffolding had been inserted and the protruding stone that supported the scaffolding were still there too. I have seen other Roman aqueducts before, but this one was by far the most beautiful and impressive.

France’s COVID protocol included proof of vaccination for pretty much anything. Entrance to attractions or shops or restaurants all required a special card if a French resident or showing the actual vaccination card if from outside of France. It was also necessary to wear masks both inside and outside. You could get away with lowering or removing the mask outside if there weren’t other people nearby (as in people outside of your group).

At Pont du Gard, we were able to remove our masks while doing most of our outdoor walking (when not in the museum). But had to put them back on when we were on the bridge as there were more people there.

Since everyone on the ship was vaccinated (all passengers, crew and staff) we didn’t need masks other than for when we visited the breakfast or lunch buffets. We had our temperatures taken each morning as we arrived for breakfast. There were hand sanitizer stations several places onboard.

Avalon was also going much more green. So we were given glass water bottles in our cabins which were refilled each day with fresh water. The daily activities and schedule, plus menus for all meals were on an app we could download to our phones. I liked that a lot, especially since the entire trip is still on my phone so I can look back at what we did and ate while writing up these posts. Such as, that night, I had a chicken liver pate, French leek and potato soup, grilled vegetables, and a chocolate parfait, washed down with a Chartron et Trebuchet wine. For lunch I had some mussels and Ratatouille with an éclair for dessert.

Next time – Avignon

June 28, 2021

Le Cote d’Azur & Along the Rhone

Our whirlwind introductory tour of Europe in 1984 included some time along the Cote d’Azur (including Eze, Monaco, Nice, Cape Ferrat, Beaulieu-Sur-Mer, and Cannes). Then we followed the Rhone River north to Avignon and Lyon.

We passed Monaco to get to Eze, which is a small, medieval village known mainly for being a small, medieval village and for its perfume industry. The same factories that made very famous, expensive perfumes also made what was basically the same formula, but with a different name at a cheaper price.

From Eze we drove to Nice and checked into our hotel. It was a fairly small, older hotel on a quite, narrow street, not too far from the beach (just a few blocks). After dinner, we took a trip to Monaco to visit the casino at Monte Carlo.

They had separate areas for the tourists and the high rollers. I decided in advance how many francs I was willing to lose and proceeded to lose them. In 1984, there was no European Union or Euros as of yet.

For many years after when I was asked if I liked to gamble, and I said, “Not much.” and was then asked if I had ever tried it (with the idea being ‘don’t knock it if you never tried it’) and if they got around to asking me, “Where?” people tended to look at me a little askance when I said, “Monte Carlo.” I knew they didn’t believe me. But I didn’t give gambling another try until 2005 when I tried a one-armed bandit in Deadwood. I made enough to pay for lunch and quit while I was ahead.

After losing the francs I had set aside, Mom and I watched a few other people for a little bit (there were a few roulette tables) before heading for a little cafe where we could get some ice cream before returning to Nice.

Both of my brothers rode special racing bicycles back then and were big fans of the Tour de France and other international races. I had drawn a little map from a Motobacan shop that we had passed to the hotel so that we would be able to find our way over there after breakfast. I wanted to get a jersey for the one brother and some gloves for the other.

Back in 1984, there were not yet many French who spoke English (or who would admit it if they did). That would require another generation. So, I needed to use my limited French to tell the proprietor what I wanted. We seemed to understand each other well enough and I left with what I wanted to buy.

Next we stopped at a place that had tennis dresses. It was Mom’s birthday and she saw a tennis dress she wanted. At another shop, I bought a touristy T-shirt and cap for myself. Then we retraced our steps back to the hotel, dropped off our packages and walked to the beach.

After lunch we departed for Cannes, Avignon, and Lyon. At each place we just had a short bus drive around before heading to the next location.

Avignon was a walled city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of Southeastern France along the Rhone River. It was the location of the Pope from 1309 to 1377. A palace is still there, although it is empty.

The bridge Pont Saint-Benezet, also known as the Pont d’Avignon, was originally a wooden bridge spanning the Rhone between Villeneuve-les-Avignon and Avignon. It was built between 1177 and 1185. This bridge was destroyed in 1226 and was rebuilt, beginning in 1234, with 22 stone arches. The bridge was abandoned in the mid-17th century as the arches tended to collapse each time the Rhone flooded making it very expensive to maintain. Four arches and a gatehouse at the Avignon end of the bridge have survived. The bridge was the inspiration for the song “Sur le pont d’Avignon”.

Lyon was the capital of the Gauls at the time of the Roman Empire. During World War II, the Nazis used Lyon as a center for their forces. Lyon was also a major center for the resistance. Klaus Barbie, known as the “Butcher of Lyon” made his headquarters at the Hotel Terminus.

This was the hotel where we stayed the night. Our room had a chandelier, a lovely fireplace, and brass beds. At dinner, we all sang “Happy Birthday” to Mom.

Next time – Paris.